


In This Life and the Next

by stelliums



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: AkuRoku Week (Kingdom Hearts), Alternate Universe - Royalty, Axel Is Lea (Kingdom Hearts), Implied Terra/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, M/M, Mentioned Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas and Ventus Are Siblings (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25806643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stelliums/pseuds/stelliums
Summary: akuroku week #5 - ‘in the next life’ / ‘wedding’it was supposed to be his brother’s wedding the next day, but a mistake and a missing groom leads to a spiritual tie being created between lea and the wrong prince.
Relationships: Axel/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Lea/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9
Collections: Akuroku Week 2020





	In This Life and the Next

The clock tower chimed twelve times to signal the end of the day and the beginning of the next. Midnight, in reality, was hardly the ‘witching hour’ that the blonde had been warned of by his tutors and governesses. He, like all of the other younger residents of the magnificent castle, were supposed to be asleep. They had been escorted from the celebrations happening below their room, like children. He and his cousin were far from children, but Roxas supposed the topic in the room must have changed to something like foreign affairs or other forms of politics. 

After all, what was marriage but an intricate political dance between two kingdoms? 

His feet swung on the side of the stone, aware of the danger that falling would pose to him yet uncaring. Roxas could hear the commotion down below, and the indiscernible sound of many voices speaking at once. By the next time that midnight struck, he would be hearing wedding bells instead. Both confirmations and weddings occurred on or after midnight, in their customs. He couldn’t say whether it was true or not that a confirmation of a union would make those involved soulmates in this life and the next, but the reality hardly mattered. It was merely a symbolic gesture.

A deep breath preceded his drop from the ledge onto the much wider, safer windowsill that led into the main ballroom. He felt like a child again, sneaking out of his room at night. His heart refused to cease it’s endless hammering – what if he had missed the confirmation? He hopped through the large window with ease and studied his reflection in the mirror. Roxas, like others in the royal family, wore the family colours of white and gold. The outfit accentuated the bright blue of his eyes, one of the few features that distinguished him from his emerald-eyed brother, Ventus. Ventus, the groom-to-be. The phrase felt like lemons on his tongue, bitter and unpleasant.

Ventus was supposedly their parent’s golden child, if micro-management was considered a form of love. As their eldest, it made sense that he would be favoured above him. Marriage alliances like this were what a second child was made for, unless the mortality rate was particularly high, but the marriage of the eldest child signalled an everlasting peace and friendship between kingdoms. No wonder the mood in the ballroom was so carefree.

A young man around his brother’s age wandered the hall, absentmindedly picking delicate finger treats off of trays as servants passed him. His mind was far away from that room, Roxas could tell. The stranger ran his hands through long, untameable auburn hair. It had been hastily tied up, but everything else about him looked perfectly put together. It was as though he had been sculpted for the role that he was meant to play. His face wore the same look that Ventus had that morning; a resigned form of anxiety, yet this man managed to make the expression seem like art too.

“Oh, good, I’ve... actually managed to find you!” The guest’s voice – Roxas had never seen him before so he assumed that he must be a guest to the palace – was louder than he had thought. Roxas slowly closed the window behind him while he carried on talking. “Everyone said that you probably ran off with someone else– a certain captain of the guard came up–“

The mention of Terra made Roxas suddenly aware that the guest was Lea, the man that Ventus was to be married to. His brother hadn’t described him in any detail; after all, it hadn’t been Ven that had engineered the match. It seemed that Lea knew little about Ven, either, aside from what could charitably be called ‘courtly gossip’.

“I’m sorry, were you talking to me?” Roxas stared up at him with a raised eyebrow in an attempt to appear as though he had never seen him before that second. “I was just– just getting some air.” He gestured the window. Had he seen him come into the room? If he did, he wondered, what would he think? Judging by his comment, he might think that he had been walking in the gardens, attended by a certain someone.

A pale hand held onto his wrist. “Cold feet? Yeah... I get it. It’s not for us, though. Just go through with this, get through tomorrow, then we’re clear to do whatever we please.” Lea was reassuring himself as much as he was talking to him. “Come on, they’re waiting.”

‘They’ was likely referring to the priestess that had travelled all the way from Lea’s kingdom to perform the confirmation of Lea and Ventus’s union. A confirmation was a sacred ceremony in both of their kingdoms, to be done in a shrouded room with no other attendants aside from the intended pair and the priestess. 

Roxas was given no time to dispute his own identity as Lea led him through the crowd of guests he had met only once and into the small shrine that Roxas had known since he had been a child. That night, it was shrouded with thick, sweet-smelling incense - Roxas was unable to recognise the scent but it was impossible to avoid being overpowered by it when they stepped into the room. The white, marble walls, carved with symbols he had learned how to decipher as a second child destined for a spiritual life, appeared more confining than they had ever been before. 

He tugged away from Lea. “I- I’m not who you think I am. I should go, I’m not supposed to be here-” Roxas had never felt so small than in that moment, standing in front of the man intended for his brother. Lea’s eyes showed a hurt expression - he could imagine that he wanted anything more than his husband-to-be to be unwilling about it all. Ventus was nowhere to be seen. If it had been him in the room, he may have gone into the ceremony with all the grace and dignity that befitted a ruler. But it would be obvious that he was unhappy, that he would rather be anywhere but there. 

Lea grabbed his hand before Roxas could turn back towards the door. “I’m sure I’m nothing like what you think either. But I don’t think you know what we’re putting on the line with this marriage.” Roxas had been intentionally sheltered from foreign affairs, so he listened intently to Lea’s hushed yet firm voice. “My advisor, he believes that you’ve given nothing to us in exchange for peace. This is how we’re both making up for that empty contract. We’re preventing another war! Look, I’ll let you have others, if that’ll make you happy, but we have to keep up appearances for everyone’s sake. Do you understand?”

Despite the weight that clung to his words, Lea raised a hand to cradle the side of his face. Roxas backed away, but instead took his hand again, slowly reaching forward to hold onto it. He was the one inside the shrine with Lea; Ventus was somewhere else, while the ballroom outside was buzzing with news of a renewed, strengthened peace and the sheathing of swords that, Lea had suggested, had been preparing to draw blood again.

Would Lea rather have the wrong husband than an unwilling one? 

The priestess spoke from behind the mist. It was thin enough to reveal the pale, seashell-pink colour of their robes. “You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be, child. Now, step closer – the sacred hour is almost at an end.” It was unclear if the stranger knew that Lea had found the wrong prince; his skin prickled with goosebumps at the sound of her voice. Whether she knew or not, it felt as though she was speaking to him, Roxas, not Ven as Lea had.

Roxas was the first of the two to step forward. This was only the confirmation; there was still time for Ventus to attend the true marriage ceremony, to play the part that had been made for him. Although somewhat well-versed in spirituality, Roxas had doubts that the confirmation would truly make he and Lea soulmates. Lea’s marriage was entirely political, after all. The true confirmation of the union would be the vows that Lea and Ven would repeat on their wedding day. That was the only ceremony that mattered, he tried to convince himself as Lea’s steps faltered. He glanced over his shoulder at him and offered a smile and an outstretched hand. Before he saw the priestess entwine the red thread of fate around their fingers, Roxas thought that he already saw a thread joining the two together.


End file.
